8x8

pier 54: Thomas Heatherwick’s Little Island on the Hudson off NYC’s Meatpacking District opens to the public 

al fresco: limited edition Rolls-Royce Boat Tail to take picnicking 

cosmism: the cosmic religion of Nikolai Fyodorov that inspired and informed Soviet space-faring aspirations  

astronomicum cæsareum: a beautifully illustrated scientific text from 1540  

circle of friends: a visualisation of the intimates that one can socially maintain—see previously  

rollercoaster tycoon: an engineer explains the different types of amusement park rides  

pole of inaccessibility: plotting when the ISS crew are one’s closest neighbours when one lives near Point Nemo  

project plywood: non-profit Worthless Studios transforms discarded materials used to board up storefronts from inclement weather and civil unrest into art

stack overflow

Released on this this day in cinemas in 1995, the Keanu Reeves and Dolph Lundgren dystopian science-fiction adaptation of the eponymous William Ford Gibson cyberpunk novel, the film takes place in 2021 with global population deeply and irretrievably engaged with an augmented reality internet which has a debilitating long-term effect called “nervous attenuation syndrome” (NAS) and transfer and transmission of data is closely controlled by mega-corporations who enforce their hegemony through the mafia.

Reeves’ character is a mnemonic courier discreetly transports data, avoiding traffic on the worldwide web, with an implant in his brain, and is entrusted with the safekeeping and eventually uploading into the public domain documents that reveal the corporations’ connections with organised crime and the computer virus that will return power and autonomy to the people, teaming up with the Lo-Teks under the leadership of J-Bone, played by Ice-T, a mysterious female projection of an omnipresent digital assistant and a genetically enhanced dolphin with abilities to break any encryption.

the solway firth spaceman

On this day in 1964 whilst on an outing with his wife and daughter, firefighter and local historian Jim Templeton (*1920 – †2011) snapped a series of photographs of his family on Burgh Marsh—and were shocked to find this mysterious figure looming behind his young daughter once the film was developed. The film manufacturer certified the image as authentic and it is conjectured that the alien is Missus Templeton having wandered into the frame—her husband insists she was not in the shot but that particular camera’s view-finder gives a slightly narrow and constrained outlook on its subject—with her features washed-out against the bright sky. Widely circulated, Templeton gifted the image to public domain early on—hoping that someone could offer a reasonable explanation.  If the photograph had been taken a century earlier, our tendency for pareidolia would have doubtlessly detected a ghost. 

dogs would be terrible poker players

Via the New Shelton wet/dry and introduced by the above irony that canine companions would have far too many tells to be successful gamblers, we are presented with the prejudice of our perceptions and the readiness of many to dismiss our feline friends as aloof despite a domestic bond—the only successfully asocial interspecies friendship we’ve managed—that’s endured for untold generations. Given the typical feline social structure and humans wanting to impose and expecting to imprint on our housemates, it’s little wonder that we misinterpret their signals and signs of affection. More relationship advice from the BBC at the link above.

rotating snakes

Always worth checking out, Things Magazine, refers us to an absolute treasury of optical illusions (previously) from Professor Akiyoshi Kitaoka, 北岡 明佳 of the psychology department of the College of Letters, Ritsumeikan University, best known for his modern interpretations of Gestalt theory and peripheral drift observations and intervention. The pictured is an example of a colour swamp whose apparent inset seems to move upon scrolling. The anomalous motions can cause disorientation, especially when presented serially, and viewer discretion is advised.

third eye blind

Industrial designer Minwook Paeng has created a prototype prosthetic eye that is meant to keep vigil whilst the wearer is fiddling if their phone to help prevent distracted pedestrians from getting in accidents themselves and becoming a nuisance or threat to others sharing their space. Automatically awaking once it detects the head is tilted downward and the neck slumped—possibly also a good posture re-enforcer—and buzzes to warn one of approaching obstacles, the satirical though appreciable in application project examines how phono-sapiens are evolving and our relations to our gadgets and accessories. More to explore from Dezeen at the link up top.

7x7

being vaccinated does NOT mean you can gyre and gimble in the wabe: COVID-19 safety protocols in the Jabberwocky 

i’ve hidden the plans in an r2 unit: watch Carrie Fisher’s screen-test for the role of Princess Leia—see also 

murder offsets: a fine is a price, paying for the right to do wrong, like papal indulgences 

page left blank intentionally: the missing portion of the CIA report on astral projection (previously)—via Things Magazine  

man tanna: the kastom tribe of Vanuatu mourn the passing of Prince Phillip  

nature’s palette: an anniversary re-print of Patrick Syme’s expansion on Werner’s Nomenclature of Colour—previously  

see my poncey boots—teach myself to cook: Mick Jagger and Dave Grohl sing about lockdown and conspiracy theorists

mindbender

Responsible to a greater or lesser degree for the Grateful Dead, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and the Unibomber and continuing for at least the next two decades albeit (reportedly) at a diminished scale, Project MKUltra was launched by the US Central Intelligence Agency through its Office of Scientific Intelligence in coordination with the army’s biological warfare laboratories on this day in 1953. Though some experiments and motivations are documented and verified, huge tranches of files documenting the programme by the CIA director in 1973 (in the midst of Watergate) making independent corroboration difficult to impossible as embarrassing and incriminating for the government to have sanctioned tests without informed-consent on unwitting subjects. Born out of paranoia experienced after acclaimed as a world power to loose monopolies on nuclear armaments and cultural hegemony, many put credence in this efforts at brainwashing, memory manipulation and behaviour control through hypnosis, hallucinogenic drugs, trained assassins, addiction and remote-controlled implants, though others including spymaster and programme director Sidney Gottlieb dismissed and disavowed the project’s methodologies as ineffective and only useful to redirect public scrutiny away from the agency’s actual goals of advancing, enhancing interrogation techniques through classic means of intimation and torture and conversely creating field operators better able to resist such ways of extracting information.

7x7

silvagunner: an appreciation of the remixing collective from Kicks Condor 

film festival: curate one’s own streaming series from a vast, public domain archive  

re-branding: artist FAEL redesigns corporate logos with a perfect balance of retro and progress 

prompts and cues: remedies to exhausting monologues and fostering better conversations  

metronome: a fascinating look at synchronicity  

братство кольца: a 1991 Russian television version of The Fellowship of the Rings (see also) resurfaces on the internet—including an appearance by Tom Bombadil whose otherwise left out of the adaptations  

the only post-punk supergroup: the musical stylings of the New Age Steppers

7x7

treasureland adventures: an arcade game made for McDonald’s that’s a lot better than most licensed vehicles—see also  

campfire tales: Haunted Tik-Tok (see also) and the art of the scary narrative in new media  

self-defence for cowards: our social skills have atrophied but we still bid our time before we get back to old, awkward habits  

die frankfurter küche: more on the modern kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky—see previously  

cave à vins: incredible wine collection hidden beneath a chicken coop 

look at me: heretofore unseen footage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono 

catch it if you can: a McDonald’s employee training video from 1972

6x6

berggeschrei: Saxon princes collected, modelled miniature mountains and enjoyed miner cos-play 

#oddlysatisfying: the hypnotic and self-soothing qualities of visual ASMR  

it’s not a cult thing: an interview with the real estate agent selling this ‘sexy funeral Goth house’ in Baltimore—via Super Punch  

erard square action: a tool that measures a piano key’s up- and down-weight  

slamilton: a basketball musical of Space Jam meshed with Hamilton—see previously—that works better than it should, via Waxy  

den hügel hinauf: Amanda Gorman’s inspirational US presidential inaugural poem (see also) will be published in German

rawhide and stagecoach

Outside of the Washington Hilton on this day in 1981, Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr., severely injuring the US president, the Press Secretary, a police officer and secret security agent in the attack. Diagnosed with erotomania and later acquitted by reason of insanity, Hinckley was obsessed with actor Jodie Foster and stalked her around the country, going as far as enrolling at Yale University where Foster was a student. His advances rebuffed, Hinckley reasoned that the fame or infamy of killing a public figure of that stature would make Foster interested in him. Nine days prior, Reagan had held a fundraising event in Ford’s Theatre, gesturing towards the presidential box where Abraham Lincoln had been watching My American Cousin the night he was shot and recalling “a curious sensation” that even with the Secret Service protection (his codename and the codename for the limousine above) that it was “probably still possible for someone with enough determination” to get close enough to shoot a president. No formal succession order was invoked as vice president George H. W. Bush was rushing back from Texas and erroneously Secretary of State Alexander Haig announced that he was in control, whereas according to Amendment XXV the next individuals in line were the Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill, and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Strom Thurmond, coming before him.

cult classics

Via ibīdem, we are directed to a gallery of some of the now dwindling fringe spiritual groups of California showcasing their chapels, meeting halls and reading rooms, which through the lens of decades of separation though a few are still active and claim many followers seem positively benign and even refreshing compared to the movements and gimmicks that we’re made to endure these days. What do you think? So long as they don’t take all your money or supplant science—particularly medical science—with woo, they seem as OK as any other organised religion. The Guardian correspondent pay visits to our old friends at the Unarian Society, the Lermurian Fellowship and many others like the pictured altar of Aetherius (that reminds us of the set of I Dream of Genie), whose congregation is communing with the Cosmic Masters for our collective benefit.

beep, beep—I’m a sheep

Not to cast aspersions on the artist, only the medium which potentially threatens to undo what progress we’ve made on being better stewards of the environment and recommodifies green-washing and all its attendant woes, we were delighted to come across this Beeple Generator—via Waxy—but definitely will not be trying to pass it off as some NFT worth millions and compounded with every trade. Though is anything stopping us?  What do you think? Of course billionaires swapping priceless works of art amongst each other, deprived of seeing the light of day—see previously—earns a commission in the transaction and taking a photograph of a work of art hanging in a gallery doesn’t diminish its value for the museum but rather enhances it but something very different is going on with this interpretation of ownership and identity.

you look like a thing and I love you

Resident artificial intelligencer Janelle Shane (previously) early on trained a neural network to generate pick-up lines with the titular gem shining through a mostly confused and incoherent jumble of words and called her book after it. Since then, machines have become more literate and sophisticated cads and can slather on some pretty good introductory ice-breakers.

I love you. I don’t care if you’re a doggo in a trenchcoat.
I will briefly summarise the plot of Back to the Future II for you.
CAPE FASHION
Can I see your parts list?

Cool your jets Babbage, Ada—things are moving a bit quickly. Check out the whole list at the link up top and learn more about the programming and protocols of machine learning.

tragomaschalia

From the June 1953 issue of Esquire—courtesy of Weird Universe—we are directed towards bedding with a strange gimmick that really stretches metaphor with these sheets treated with chlorophyll which apparently would at the same time attract livestock and fulfil the preferences of goatherds and shepherdesses who would rather sleep in the great outdoors. There’s one made up fear (see also) but made not in the obvious word. If one’s present linens are wanting, one is advised to “deter aegiphobia”—not a real word and presumably one should avoid the fear of covering up, aegis—“and rest assured.” The other menacing word, even footnoted from Aristophanes, is τραγομάσχαλος but not meaning agoraphilia or claustrophobia but rather referring our little bedmate above armpits smelling like a he-goat, in use both figuratively and in clinical-settings. There is quite a bit going on here and I’d be hard-pressed to find a contemporary advertisement that has this many levels I think.

hypospray or mister x

Via Waxy, here’s a nice survey of jabs and vaccination campaigns as portrayed in film and television, including classics like the Star Trek TOS episode Miri, biopics of Louis Pasteur and Edward Jenner, and a multiplicity of Simpsons episodes like the December of 2000 show “The Computer Wore Menace Shoes” wherein Homer’s alter ego creates a conspiracy website (after his first, innocent attempt failed to draw interest) that unfortunately speaks across the decades. As punishment for being too clever, Homer is imprisoned on an island for people who know too much. Seriously, get your shot and protect yourself and others.

deckname borghild

Though familiar with some of the more infamous hoaxes associated with Germany (see previously here and here) the defrauded operation above (thanks to Weird Universe for sending us down this rabbit hole), suggesting that the Nazis invented the inflatable sex doll was new to us, not to mention patently untrue. Resurfacing perennially with varying degrees of veracity and sounding at least plausible—like something that they don’t put in history books, it is nonetheless worth contemplating why such a story might be a tempting and enduring subject for rehashing. Aside from the salaciousness, it is established that the party exploited psycho-sexual fantasies and wish-fulfilment as a recruiting tool as well as documented antecedents that seem to inform and support the fabricated supposition. Viennese Expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka did have a real doll creepily made of Alma Mahler, widow of Gustave and a piano virtuoso in her own right, in 1918—anatomically correct at least in the estimation of the consigner, and the narrative pursued involves the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden and the very real sculptor called Franz Tschakert who created the original invisible, transparent man and woman in the early 1930s that displayed full human anatomy as well as the internal organs, supposedly contracted by Schutzstaffel chief Heinrich Himmler to create a hyper-realistic sex doll (Sexpuppe) whose artifice would be better than reality. Leadership was motivated to offer such amenities for the troops to dissuade them from congress with sex-workers in occupied lands and staunch the spread of syphilis and other social diseases. The originating reporter of the repeated urban legend has the fifty prototypes made destroyed in the fire-bombing of Dresden with only anecdotes surviving.

6x6

ribbit: frogs use their lungs effectively as noise-cancelling devices—via the new Shelton wet/dry  

oculus: architect envisions Rome’s Pantheon as world’s largest camera obscura (previously) with a conceptual installation 

fetish-free commodities: Existential Comics attempts to demystify Marxist marketplaces—via Nag on the Lake and Memo of the Air 

radiant baby: a brief biography of artist Keith Haring told with drawings and song  

ipa: an iconographic dictionary that corresponds to each phoneme of human language 

marshmallow test: cuttlefish demonstrate self-control and delay gratification, passing a cognitive benchmark designed for human children

lone gunman

Awarded a contract to conserve and present the twenty-seven home movie filmed by Abraham Zapruder (previously) of the Kennedy assassination due to his experience and expertise in converting eight-millimetre footage into theatrical quality video, processing film for the 1969 documentary on Woodstock, technician and author Robert J. Groden (*22 November 1945) became obsessed with conspiracy theories (self-fulfilling in part for feeling persecuted and censored for doing what’s to follow) surrounding the president’s murder, going on to become a photographic consultant for a House Select Committee on political assassinations and a vocal critic of the Warren Commission, first had a national venue with the first televised presentation of the Zapruder film on this day in 1975. Appearing opposite comedian and activist Dick Gregory on a show called Good Night America, hosted by Geraldo Rivera (*4 July 1943) whose more celebrated expose was the empty vaults of gangster Al Capone, Groden shared his personal, unauthorised copy of the film, marking the first time general audiences saw it in full.